Patrick Viera has claimed that he will treat tomorrow’s pre-season friendly clash with Liverpool in Singapore tomorrow the same as he’d treat a Premier League game.
The Reds were defeated 4-0 by Manchester United on Tuesday but the main focus against the Eagles will be ensuring that players get more minutes under their belt rather than making up for the defeat against the Red Devils.
Former Arsenal man Viera is too focussing on the first game of the Premier League season rather than tomorrow’s result, but he is expecting a real test from Jurgen Klopp’s side.
“There is no easy game against Liverpool,” Viera said (as quoted by Liverpool Echo).
“We are facing a team that will be there at the top to challenge for the title, and will be there to challenge for winning the Champions League. It’s preparation that will give us, and me as a manager, an idea about where we are. It’s really good game preparation for us.
“We know how difficult and challenging that game will be, but we are in preparations and we will learn a lot tomorrow about where we are, and which part of the game we will need to focus on. The objective is to be ready for the first game of the season.”
Palace, similar to Liverpool, have included a number of Academy players in their squad that has travelled to Asia and the former midfielder has explained that they may be given a chance to show what they’re made of in Singapore tomorrow.
He added: “We bring some young players and that will be a really good experience. Some of them are travelling that far for the first time. How are they going to deal with that experience? The flight, the time difference. Those kinds of experiences will tell us a lot about those players.”
We did the double over the Selhurst Park outfit last term – earning a 3-0 victory at Anfield and winning 3-1 in the capital.
The south London outfit finished 12th in the table last season so they will be fully focussed on a top half finish this time around.
On their day they can be a dangerous outfit with the likes of Wilfred Zaha, Eberechi Eze and Michael Olise causing trouble up top.
Former Liverpool players Christian Benteke and Nathaniel Clyne could potentially earn some minutes against their former side tomorrow, we’ll just have to wait and see.
The game kicks off at 1:35pm UK time and is available for viewers who have subscribed to LFCTV.